Here's the place to chat about all things classic. Also includes a feedback forum where you can communicate directly with the editorial team - don't hold back, they'd love to know what they're doing right (or wrong of course!)

Good old GHT, helpful as always. The sensible answer is that it will need one unless you declare it as a vehicle of historic interest the next time you tax it. If you do this you can still have a voluntary MoT, but if you don't you will be legally obliged to have an MoT to use it on the road.

Before deciding whether to register for the exemption, check the effect that this will have on the insurance premium and level of cover. Some of the established classic insurance specialists are fine with the exemption, others will either refuse to cover a car that has no valid test certificate or will charge a substantially greater amount for the same cover, this is what some of the members of the local multi-marque club have been finding when renewing insurance on cars that have already been granted the exemption on the outgoing, pre-1960 basis.
In several cases, the typical £30-£40 test fee is less than the extra insurance cost and having a car tested shouldn't be an issue when the car is well maintained.

Then there's the satisfaction of having a test pass and the added value should the car ever be sold on..

I asked my insurance company about this and they said if it's legal, they can't raise objection. They didn't mention premium but time would tell whether they would raise it. Yes I will register my cars as exempt but only so as I can get them checked after a certain mileage and not simply because it's a year since the last MOT.

To help when driving the MG at night time I've fitted LED lights, what a difference they make. But, can anyone tell me, are they an MOT failure?
Should I replace the LED's for the candles before putting it through it's MOT?

To help when driving the MG at night time I've fitted LED lights, what a difference they make. But, can anyone tell me, are they an MOT failure?
Should I replace the LED's for the candles before putting it through it's MOT?

As long as you don't have LEDs in the headlamps you'll get a pattern that's satisfactory for the test. They can be used in other locations but buy from a trusted retailer such as Halfords, DDC, Marble Arch, Cafco, etc. as most eBay LEDs are not kitemarked and can be of an illegally white tone.

LEDs as headlamps are evolving to the point where they'll soon be a drop-in legal alternative to R6s, 410s and H4s but at this point in time, only lamps suitable for HIDs are also suitable for LEDs, as found in some new cars. In a nutshell; if the lamp's pattern is formed in the lens, then there's no legal LED option yet, and LEDs that claim to be suited with H4 lamps tend to provide light in a totally unfocused manner on dipped beams and next to no light at all on highs, this because the LEDs have none of the mirrors found inside H4 envelopes, so their output is random at best.
For better light output from headlamps, go for Osram or Philips uprated H4s whose light output is improved by use of a more efficient halogen & filament material combination, which improves light output by a stated +30% for the same 60/55 Watt consumption. I have 100/80 Watt H4s in the modern daily car and contrary to myth, these are legal as there's a minimum acceptable figure (30 Watts) but no maximum for MOT as long as the dipped beam patterns are able to be adjusted to within the defined area on the setter. Construction and use regs may be different for domestic market vehicles though, but around here where roads are mostly unlit and few are dualled yet, everyone's at it and there haven't been prosecutions relating.
I never get flashed on when I do have to drive in dark conditions and the car has gone through all three of its UK MOTs to date with the hundred over eighties in place and working, nor have I ever had their presence questioned by traffic cops, even when I'd been sitting behind one of their new Jaguar 4x4s for a forty mile stretch of the A9, dipped beams on and in the appropriate (automatically set) level position with a pallet of (roughly 190Kg of) free turning naval brass bar in the back and three of us across the front seat, a combined weight of 40+ Stones of large human!